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Monday, 5 March 2018

Diversity in Children's Books by Adam Wallace #ChaBooCha

Diversity in Children’s Books:

Why it is
important for every kid to feel included in the stories they read

Diversity.
It’s the in word, for TV shows and movies and definitely in children’s books.
Our books must have diversity, so that all children can relate to the stories
and the characters. They must be able to see themselves in the stories so that
they can feel included. If they are, for example, Asian, and they read a book or
see a show that has no Asian characters in it, they are seeing a world foreign
to their own.

They are
not represented.

This is
absolutely correct and important and I have no argument with it. We do need to see more representation of different races and different cultures.

There
are a couple of asides that I believe aren’t always looked at that are equally
as important.

The
first is this. If we just throw characters into our stories for the sole reason
that we have diversity, we start to lose authenticity. We start to lose the
truth of our story, and we are writing for a different reason. Diversity is
important, yes, but not at the cost of truth.

The
second thing is just as, if not more important, to me at least. Diversity, I
believe, doesn’t just include race or religion or gender, it’s personality and
interests as well. What’s the point in having someone of your race in a book you are reading if
they are nothing like you? You won’t be able to relate to that anyway. We have
kids who are shy and kids who are funny and kids who like sport and kids who
hate sport and kids who are brave and kids who are scared and kids who do maths
and kids who play the flute and kids who have goals and dreams and kids who
like watching movies.

There
needs to be diversity in this way as well, so that the children actually see
themselves in a story, not just because of how they look or what church they go
to, not just some generic representation, but actually who they are.

What
they like and what they are like.

If we
write honestly, if we write from our hearts, if we write from our experiences,
then that will come through the story, there will be a range of characters and
personalities and friends and enemies, from all races, religions and genders, all of whom exist not only in our worlds
but in the worlds of the reader as well, and that is what the children will
relate to.

That is
where they will see themselves, as who they are or who they want to be.

So yes,
have diversity in your stories but remember to be diverse in your diversity as
well.

*****

About the Author

A qualified Engineer and Primary School Teacher, Adam Wallace settled on writing books for children as his career of choice. With more than 20 published, including Better Out Than In and the How to Draw series, Adam is fast becoming a well-known name in the world of children’s books. You can find Adam's books at Adam Wallace Books and his Facebook author page here.

Give-away

All you need to do, as a signed-up member of the Chapter Book Challenge, to enter into the drawing for "Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly" by Gail Carson Levine is to comment on this blog post. (If you are reading this in your e-mail, you will need to click on the link that will take you to the actual post and then comment.) Winners will be selected by a random number generator at noon on March 31st, 2018 and announced the same day.

The role of diversity in chapter books (indeed any books) cannot be underestimated. Your post is a wonderful reminder about the powerful impact when writers convey messages to cover a wide spectrum of experiences from those of varying backgrounds. The power of #OwnVoices is extremely valuable in this regard. Many thanks for sharing these insights!

This is a great post Adam. Diversity and representation is important to me. If I find myself automatically chosing a "default" character I ask why I've done that and I look to see if I can be more inclusive.

Chapter Book Challenge

This is a challenge to write one chapter book in one month. The first one will be running in March 2012, and you can join in by the 1st of the month. There will be progressupdates, inspirational posts, and guest posts by published chapter book authorsand agents. There will even be some terrific prizes!

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